I often here something like “People are fundamentally selfish” and that everything an individual does is ultimately motivated by a selfishness.
Sometimes I will hear a debate concerning whether people are selfish or “generally good”. The debate is nearly always framed with those two sides, and I have heard it many times from people of all backgrounds.
Sometimes the “generally good” side wins. After all, we usually accomplish a wide range of humanitarian duties as individual nations, as organizations, as groups, and sometimes even as individuals. Most of us think of ourselves as “the good guys”. Nearly all of us have heartfelt sympathy for those experiencing tragedy.
More and more often over the past decade or so, however, I have heard the other side win the debate. The argument goes that all individual human action or behaviour without exception has a selfish core motivation. This “selfish-sider”, builds upon this position, noting that villains think they are “good guys” too, and that countless minor horrors and massive atrocities have been committed under the belief that they were justified, or that it was an “eye for an eye”. They state that an eye for an eye is the true sentiment of society, and that all good deeds are conducted so that we can live with ourselves—to protect ourselves from guilt, or manage how we appear to our neighbours. Some add the additional point that humans are animals too, and therefore are “biologically programmed” to operate selfishly to maximize their survival likelihood, and ability to pass on a given individual’s genes as well as possible. I am sure there are others arguing this position right now, who would also note that “selfless” actions involving loved ones can also be construed as selfishly protecting them and theirs.
When I first heard this people are selfish argument, I remember my response. During my childhood I was always told that “people are generally good” without much explanation. I simply filed it away, since it sounded right. As a result when I heard this counter argument as a young man, I was initially shocked. Had I been wrong all this time? Was my faith in humanity misplaced? At the time, I was having own science v faith debate as I explored the independence from my newfound adulthood.
I thought about this debate and how so many of the details on both sides seemed to ring powerfully true, while also seeming mutually exclusive. I do not recall the swings of my internal struggle, but I may very well have vacillated over to the “humans are selfish animals” camp for moments. Ultimately, I rejected it. I would imagine there are many general ideas and countless individual experiences that evidence the basic selflessness of a person. This is the idea that I struck upon that I could not deny, that was the truest.
At the time, I did not consciously comprehend the depths of this truth. I countered for years with examples and comparisons. I would explain that when a person comes across a stranger drowning in a river, that person will act to rescue the victim without thought. They will nearly always do so without consideration for their own safety, and without any conscious or unconscious calculation of net benefit self, or such as reward or who may see them, or how much energy they might expend that they could use for selfish objects. There are certainly many thousands of examples of immediate heroic selflessness in every corner of the world, each and every day. I would continue with a comparison between a person and non-person. A lion, for example, will not routinely act in a basic selfless fashion, to help a stranger, whether a lion or not.
I formulated the above argument perhaps nearly a decade and a half ago, and I still think the first example is a good one. As for the person v non-person argument, where I would have included whales and ape back then perhaps, now I accept the concept of personhood is far more complex.
The debate I am writing about today uses selfish as a purely negative label. Naturally, much of what we do for basic human survival and overall self-determination are “selfish” actions. The distinction that is typically implied in the common usage of the term includes an inclination to act for your benefit to the detriment of others, without regard to proportion or circumstances, necessarily. We all knew that, right? Just so someone doesn’t raise their hand later, there it is.
The harmful + selfish behaviour generally stems from a wellness concern, whether physical or psychological, and not from a fundamental nature of being. When people feel bad, or find themselves in bad circumstances, they may have less regard or awareness of the effects of their actions.
The harmful + selfish behaviour generally stems from a wellness concern, whether physical or psychological, and not from a fundamental nature of being. When people feel bad, or find themselves in bad circumstances, they may have less regard or awareness of the effects of their actions.
The deeper extension of this point is that when a person has a social or spiritual wellness concern, they will tend to have less regard for others wellbeing. Most of all, they will tend to have great difficulty seeing the extent of the effects of their actions on others. Everyone will be affected differently by an action. One of the most difficult virtues to master is to skilfully manage the effects of your behaviour on others in order to minimize harm and maximize good*. For simplicity’s sake I will cite the Buddhist concept of attachment, and the general notion of harm one’s attachment can cause to others, as well as us emotionally. Others have covered this idea for hundreds of volumes of text, and I could go on for a very long time, so let me know if you would like me to write more about how spiritual wellness and attachment applies to building wellness.
A rubric of CortCaldwell.com is to help foster wellness builders efforts while limiting social judgements. Keeping that in mind, a social wellness concern includes both social development and social environment factors. A multitude of unhealthy home “nurture” factors such as abuse, will usually contribute to a social wellness concern. Current ongoing socialization, such as negative, unsupportive friends and associates, or unhealthy relationships, can as well.
Keep in mind that everyone has social and spiritual wellness concerns, unless actually enlightened, or ready to transcend the material plane. None of us enjoy completely pristine wellness on every front.
Fundamentally, we are each distinct individuals, as well interconnected. We enjoy an intrinsic social connection as members of the global community. We share an intrinsic spiritual connection as beings on together on this planet. What’s more, we have the ability to choose to grow in countless ways, and push the boundaries of what wellness means to each of us, and what we can achieve together. Living in this world and facing illness and aging, we must be aware of the reality that we will often be blind to the true and complete needs of those around us, or be unable to respond adequately to those needs. We are battling this wellness build every day and our minds and our bodies will frequently be in places and spaces that we do not really wish. Now, at least, those of us here know what needs to be recovered.
Build well,
CRC
*In a series of future articles will cover the concept paraphrased as the virtue skilfully managing the effects of your behaviour on others in order to minimize harm and maximize good. Most of the way we as a society handle this concept (to the extent we subscribe to the importance of it) I believe is tragically flawed. Stay tuned.
